A Review of The American Revolution
To the editor:
To continue our review of American colonial history, building to July 4, 2026, we focus on an independence milestone that occurred five years after the 1770 Boston Massacre. This event provides a well-established lesson taught to school children. Plagued by debt, partly caused by the French and Indian War, the British government imposed revenue acts on the colonists, particularly in Boston. Colonists, such as Sam Adams, argued these acts were unjust because the colonies had contributed to their own defense with men and treasure. They often had to fend for themselves which created friction because the British treated the colonies as revenue sources. Colonists also believed that some of the revenue acts were designed to help British companies, not them. They were learning to govern themselves and manage their own affairs. That was especially true in Massachusetts and Virginia, primary sources of colonial agitation. The British came to think such colonial ingratitude could not be tolerated and that colonists should not be rewarded for their desire for and commitment to self-determination.
After the Massacre, military build-up continued, even increased. Colonists argued that if they were not part of the taxation process, they did not have to comply: “Taxation without representation.” That argument against authoritarianism was the straw that caused King George III and Parliament to take even stiffer measures. Already well armed for feeding themselves and self-protection, the colonists began arming themselves for resistance. They acquired more weapons and stockpiled powder and lead. They formed militia, ostensibly ready to respond at a minute’s notice. On April 19, 1775, British General Thomas Gage sent troops from Boston to Concord to seize weapons and powder. Paul Revere and others rode to warn the colonials to be ready to defend themselves against soldiers sent to punish them.
Colonists met the Red Coats (later called “Lobsterbacks”) at Lexington and engaged in a skirmish during which eight colonials were killed at Lexington Green. Next, Red Coats reached Concord where another confrontation occurred, memorialized as North Bridge. Then, colonials used indigenous people’s tactics. They hid, ambushed, and refused to fight in formation. British casualties resulted. During the retreat to Boston, the British suffered 270 casualties, while the colonials lost approximately 90 men. Bloodshed begets bloodshed.
After a century of increasing self-determination, colonials began to assert themselves as deserving liberty. Rather than being inferior, unequal, and subordinate, they thought otherwise. On July 4, 1776, they declared: “When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.” This Declaration itemized the tyranny of George III: “The History of the King of Great Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
Little did the colonials know or care that the King was suffering from increasing mental dysfunctions and deficiencies, a point that is made in the play Hamilton. Modern diagnosis reasons that George suffered from bipolar disorder (manic-depressive psychosis). However much this affected the “Mad” King’s judgment before 1776 is unclear, but symptoms became worse, characterized by episodes of aggressive agitation, incoherent speech, violence, hallucinations, and sexual impropriety. His dementia, mental derangement, became chronic after periods of euphoria and hyperactivity (mania). Some of this diagnosis is based on research by the Texas Medical Branch, https://www.utmb. edu/mdnews/podcast/episode/ the-mad-king.
Some historians have tried to excuse George, arguing that he was not evil but at worse a stern father. However true such reassessment is, Patriots came to blame the King for problems they thought could only be reconciled by strong resistance. Reason seemed not to prevail. In the countdown to July 4, 2026, we may cautiously aspire that history does not repeat itself. “All Men are created equal.” “They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” “To secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”
Bob Heath Carmine